posted on 03 Sep 2024

The Remarkables by Clotilde Perrin, translated by Daniel Hahn

I was delighted to receive this book from the publisher of this quirky French author/ illustrator who is well known for her intricate and interactive books that often focus on investigating fairytale characters. This one uses a similarly forensic style to examine 38 non-gender-specific, extraordinary children, each of whom is unique in what they offer. A map at the front of the book shows the reader where each character lives, plus the appropriate page number to find out more about them. Every one of these deserves the reader’s close attention, but I will give my five favourite examples, each of which remind me of children that I have taught in the past.

The Thunder Child is ‘impressively loud’ with a ‘roaring mouth’ and 'lightning-bolt hair’ - and is rather exhausting to spend time with. He/she loves to cause noise and chaos wherever s/he goes and probably needs to learn to calm down a bit. Everything s/he touches gets broken and s/he loves playing drums. 

The Scribbly Child is described as ‘loosely relaxed’ and is shown as a colourful, creative character with knotty hair and an undefined body shape ‘brimming with wishes and fizzing with joy’.  S/he is full of boundless potential as s/he doesn’t much care for rules that might constrain him/her.     

The Giant Child is so enormous that s/he barely fits onto the page with his/her ‘eyes as big as windows’ and ‘hands like loader buckets’. It is clearly an advantage to be so big as s/he can fill a bathtub with just one tear and carry all manner of heavy objects with great ease.

The Cupcake Child is one of the few that is given an origin story and apparently ’tumbled into a jar of sugar when a baby’. This alarming incident means that his/her parents are constantly tempted to take a bite from his/her ‘succulent calves’, delicious 'whipped cream hair’ and ‘deliciously sugared ears’. 

I wonder if The Foldaway Child was inspired by ‘Flat Stanley’ by Jeff Brown? As in that classic story, this character is ‘easy to transport’ which is very handy for travelling, shopping and hiding, and saving on space.    

I couldn’t help but be reminded of the ever-popular Mr Men series of books by Roger Hargreaves in the overall attempt to exaggerate particular characteristics, but this is far more ambitious and three dimensional. I thoroughly enjoyed how it emphasises the oddness and unusual in a matter-of-fact fashion, as well as encouraging discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the different characters. I can see how it would be a valuable classroom resource for looking at individual differences and describing different feelings and emotions. I suspect that, as I did, many children will identify with several different character portraits. It would also inspire some great artwork and creative writing when creating other characters.

This very imaginative, engaging and very funny picture book is published by Gecko and is now available from your local independent bookshop, who will be happy to order it if not already on their shelves.

Karen Argent 

September 2024